Despite a forecast calling for snow, a warm winter in Southcentral has been a nightmare for Iditarod planners. They chose to move the race north through the interior a month ago, but as mushers now gather for the ceremonial start in Anchorage, KNOM’s Matthew Smith has more on what they expect from the new route—and for some it has nothing to do with the trail.
The 43rd annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race begins with a its traditional ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage Saturday, but then the race heads north—to a Fairbanks restart on Monday—only the second time in the race’s history it’s been rerouted north in search of better trail.
Iditarod CEO Stan Hooley says everything mushers know from past Iditarods—even the only previous Fairbanks reroute back in 2003—is out the window.
“It’s not the traditional Iditarod trail. We know that it’s roughly 19 miles less, in terms of mileage, but the topography is quite different,” said Hooley. “Lot more time on rivers than the traditional route. You don’t have the Alaska Range to climb through. While the mileage is similar the race itself really won’t be.”
The big change, of course, is that Fairbanks re-start—which after a week of warmer weather has seen a slight change of its own, off the river ice where the re-start was planned and now through a tiny corner of the city’s southwest tip before sending mushers back on to the Chena River.
60 miles downriver from the start is the first checkpoint: Nenana. It’s where Nome’s Aaron Burmeister trained all year.
‘This year the race starts pretty much at home for me, where I’ve trained in the winters in the last ten years, and its finishing at home in Nome. And it’s a real special race for us. We’ll be running through out main training trails, and we’re very excited about getting out there,” said Burmeister.
From Nenana it’s off the river—for a while—using the overland “mail trail” for 90 miles to Manley Hot Springs. Then it’s another river run to Tanana before the race’s first whopper: more than 100 miles to Ruby.
“It’s the longest run of the race. 120-125 mile run. Which is new for a lot of our competitors, they haven’t gone that far, and it’s on the river, so there will be some camping going on there,” said Race marshal Mark Nordman. “It’s a whole new ball game.”
After that long run it’s 50 more miles to Galena, and then on to another new checkpoint—up to Huslia and back.
“It’s an interesting trail too, because it’s some lakes and portages, lakes and portages, all the way up,” said Nordman. “Same thing, coming back from Huslia down to Koyukuk. So the trail there is real good, more of a trapping, trapline trail, not quite as traveled.”
That trail to Huslia ties in to mushing’s history—with many mushing mentioning George “the Huslia Hustler” Attla, who died last month. It’s a connection Kotzebue’s Chuck Schaeffer and Dee Dee Jonrowe say is important for the race—and the fans—to recognize.
“I’ve known George forever, you know, he’s kind of my mentor. When I first got into dog mushing when I was just a young man, I used to watch him a lot, he’d come up to Kotzebue and do the Arctic Circle champaionship. And I eventually bought a few things from him, I bought a sled from him, I bought a dog from him later on in life. But you know I really didn’t know George up until a few years ago and we became really close friends,” said Shaeffer.
“I had actually been privileged enough to race some races with George,” said Jonrowe. “I really felt like Huslia was kind of one of those scared places of dog mushing, and so, I’m just excited to meet more of the people form that area, and you know, just see those guys that encouraged me in the early years.”
After Huslia and Koyukuk the trail passes into familiar territory—on to Nulato and then Kaltag before mushers hit the coast in Unalakleet and travel the familiar trail to Nome. Bethel’s Pete Kaiser—the winner of this year’s Kuskokwim 300—says he’s bringing nearly every dog in that team to run Iditarod—and hopes that victory in that mid-distance race bodes well for Iditarod.
“Hard to know how a race is going to play out. And it’s going to be hard to well, going to have to get all your ducks in a row, and hope that al the training you did pays off when it comes down to going a thouands miles,” said Kaiser. “A thousand miles is a lot different than going 300, but the Kusko is usually a good indicator of a team’s strength at that point in the year.”
The 43rd Iditarod restarts in Fairbanks today.
